Greece rushes to finalise reforms for third bailout and remain in euro

It raised hopes that Greece can get the rescue deal that will prevent a catastrophic exit from the euro after key creditors said they were open to discussing how to ease the country’s debt load, a long-time sticking point in their talks.

“Greece has to demonstrate a willingness to follow through and table some reforms extremely quickly”, Mujtaba Rahman, an analyst at Eurasia Group, said in a note to clients.

“We propose to immediately implement a set of measures as early as the beginning of next week including: tax reform related measures; pension related measures” if the loan from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) was forthcoming, the finance ministry said in a letter to the eurozone bailout fund.

“We will also include additional actions that the Republic will undertake to further strengthen and modernize its economy”.

(MENAFN – AFP) Greece was to submit a detailed bailout request to its EU partners in the eurozone Thursday in a last-ditch effort to save its collapsing economy and its membership in the European single currency.

Russia’s Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak reportedly once said it would be “easy” for Greece to get a loan from the New Development Bank (NDB), formerly known as the BRICS Development Bank, but Andrei Kostin, the CEO of the Russian VTB bank, said the European Union must resolve the crisis in Greece on its own, Reuters reported. “We look forward to your favorable and timely consideration of our request”.

Donald Tusk, who will chair this Sunday’s meeting of European leaders, says any Greek deal has to be matched with realistic proposals from creditors over how to make the country’s debts sustainable.

A demonstration of Greeks calling for their country to remain in Europe was to take place in central Athens late Thursday. On June 30, Greece became the first developed nation in history to default on a loan from the International Monetary Fund.

Failure to reach a deal could be the first step towards Greece leaving the shared euro currency.

“There are only three days left to the next summit”, Mr. Tusk said, adding that he had spoken to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras earlier in the day to make clear to him the seriousness of the situation.

Greece has been nonetheless closer than ever to departing the euro, with a broad cross-section of European officials speaking openly about such an eventuality.

“Greece is in a situation of acute crisis which needs to be addressed”, worldwide Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde told a conference in Washington. At stake is Greece’s future in the euro.

Tsipras insisted last Sunday’s referendum result, in which voters soundly rejected a previous creditors’ reform proposal, does not mean a break with Europe.

The closures, which have been extended through Monday, have led to daily lines at ATM machines and have hammered businesses.

Greece today was hurtling toward a midnight deadline to submit new bailout plans to unlock billions of euros of fresh aid desperately needed to keep its struggling economy afloat and stop it crashing out of the euro.

The last-minute maneuvers come as Greece’s financial system teeters on the brink of collapse.

Global markets, though, appear relatively sanguine about the possibility of contagion from a “Grexit”, or Greek exit from the eurozone, despite an initial dip after the referendum.

Market reaction suggested investors believe a deal can be done, or that the European Central Bank can successfully contain the fallout if one isn’t.